9-Year-Old Boy Found Dead at Bronx Apartment Complex

UPDATED | Police are investigating how a 9-year-old boy fell to his death from a Bronx apartment building Wednesday.

Sidy Fofana, 9 years old, fell from the building on the right.

Phil Helsel

Sidy Fofana, 9, was found on scaffolding at 20 Richman Plaza after he fell at around 5 p.m., police said. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

At this point there is no evidence of suicide or any criminality and investigators are leaning toward it being an accidental death, the official said.

A law-enforcement official said the boy was last seen in his uncle’s apartment on the 43rd floor. His body wasn’t found long after, the official said.

His mother sent him to the apartment to get money so the family could buy Chinese food, the official said. Investigators don’t believe the boy fell from the uncle’s apartment because it faces away from where he landed, the official said.

The boy’s injuries are consistent with a fall from a great height, the official said. Investigators were looking at the possibility that the boy fell off the roof of the 46-story building, the official said.

A fall from the roof is “one of our foremost theories,” NYPD Detective Martin Speechley said.

Friend Imaji Crawford, 13, was stunned Thursday when he learned Sidy was dead.

“I’m speechless, I’ve known him since he was a little baby,” he said. “They said someone had fallen, but they didn’t say who it was…he was a cool, calm kid. He [loved] to play soccer.”

Detectives spoke with Sidy’s principal at Harlem Success Academy Thursday, and the principal said Sidy attended school Wednesday without incident, the official said. Sidy had high marks, had no problems with anyone and was a model student, the principal told investigators, according to the official.

Residents said the doors leading to the roof aren’t locked, and that children often go up to the top of buildings in the apartment complex.

“The back door (to the roof) is always open, they could easily go up there,” Crawford said.

Investigators found that the child knew that he could access the roof and that the roof door had no lock or alarm on it, the official said. The money he was given for the Chinese food was not found with his body, but there was no evidence of a struggle on the roof or evidence that anyone else was on the roof, the official said. The impact of the fall caused his pants pockets to rip, the official said.

It was common for kids who live in the building to hang out on the roof, where there is a steel wire anchored to the roof by two, two-foot tall metal boxes that near the edge of the walled roof, the official said. Investigators are looking at the possibility that Sidy stepped up onto one of the boxes and accidentally fell over the side of the building, the official said.

The buildings in the complex are being renovated, with scaffolding hung from the roof. Some residents said the din of work being done meant some people didn’t hear anything unusual at the time of the accident.

“I saw one of the tenants pointing. I looked out the window and saw him lying on his face,” said Crystal Alvarez, who wad visiting family at the building at the time of the fall. “I couldn’t sleep at all last night.”

A spokesman for the building’s management company said the law requires that roof access doors remain unlocked, but that the company does not condone residents’ going up there.

“Clearly the building management does not encourage people of any age to congregate on the roof,” said spokesman Ronn Torossian. “It’s a fire exit. [Locking the door] is illegal. You cannot lock that door.”

Mr. Torossian said the building owners are cooperating fully with police as they investigate whether a crime occurred. There are security cameras in the building, but not on the roof, he said.

“Our condolences are extended to the family on their tragic loss,” Mr. Torossian said.

The Office of the Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death blunt trauma from injuries caused by the fall– which included two broken arms, a fractured skull, blunt force to the face and an amputated left leg, The official said. The manner of death is still pending.